Liquid cooling device for multiple electronic components

ABSTRACT

A liquid cooling device for multiple electronic components has two liquid blocks, a heat-dissipating plate, a pump and a heat sink. The two liquid blocks and the heat sink are connected and communicated with other via tubing. The pump operates to make a coolant circulate among the two liquid blocks and the heat sink. The heat-dissipating plate is integrally formed with one liquid block. The heat-dissipating plate is disposed on another separate electronic component for absorbing heat. Therefore, the liquid cooling device has only two liquid blocks, but can dissipate heat generated by three electronic components.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a liquid cooling device and, in particular, to a liquid cooling device for multiple electronic components.

2. Description of Related Art

As modem computers have to process very complicated processes, its internal circuit design also becomes more complicated. Electronic components in the computers produce heat during their operations. Therefore, a liquid cooling device has been introduced. The liquid cooling device comprises several liquid blocks, a pump and a heat sink. The liquid blocks are filled with a coolant and directly mounted on the electronic components for absorbing heat generated from them. The liquid blocks are in liquid communications with the pump and the heat sink via tubing. Therefore, the pump operates to make the coolant circulate in the liquid blocks. The coolant thus transfers heat from the liquid blocks to the heat sink. After the heat sink dissipates the heat, the coolant can flow back to the liquid blocks for repeatedly heat dissipation.

From the above explanation, the existing liquid block is designed for a single electronic component. To dissipate heat generated by multiple electronic components on a mother board, the liquid-cooling heat-dissipating device has to have several liquid blocks respectively disposed on the those electronic components. However, this increases the production cost and complicates the assembling operations among those liquid blocks since a lot of tubing for connections is required.

To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a liquid cooling device to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the invention is to provide a liquid cooling device that can be applied to multiple electronic components.

To achieve the objective, the liquid cooling device comprises:

two liquid blocks communicating with each other via tubing and being filled with coolant, each of the liquid blocks for being mounted on an electronic component;

a heat-dissipating plate integrally extending from and being outside one of the liquid blocks for being mounted on another electronic component;

a pump being connected and communicating with any one of the liquid blocks via tubing; and

a heat sink being connected and communicating with the pump and any one of the liquid blocks via tubing.

The invention can achieve liquid-cooling effects for three electronic components just using two liquid blocks and the heat-dissipating plate. The invention does not only reduce the cost by having one less liquid block, but also simplifies the connections among the components by using fewer tubing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective operational view of a preferred embodiment of a liquid cooling device in accordance with the invention being applied to a mother board with south and north bridge chips and an image processing chip;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the mother board with the liquid cooling device in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view in partial section of the mother board with the liquid cooling device in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a second liquid block and a heat-dissipating plate in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, a mother board 10 is disposed with several electronic components such as a south bridge chip 11, a north bridge chip 12 and an image processing chip 13 that will generate heat. A liquid cooling device of the present invention comprises a first liquid block 20, a second liquid block 30, a heat-dissipating plate 40, a pump 50 and a heat sink 60.

The first liquid block 20 is mounted on the north bridge chip 12 and has a base 21 and a cover 22. The base 21 has a bottom surface being in contact with the north bridge chip 12 and a top surface formed with heat-dissipating fins 21 1. The cover 22 is mounted on the base 21 and completely covers and seals the heat-dissipating fins 211 to accommodate the coolant. The cover 22 is formed with two inlet/outlet 221.

The second liquid block 30 is mounted on the image processing chip 13. The second liquid block 30 has the same structure as the first liquid block 20. One of the inlet/outlet 321 is connected via tubing 33 to one of the liquid inlet/outlet 221 of the first liquid block 20.

With reference to FIG. 4, the heat-dissipating plate 40 is integrally extended from one side of the base 31 of the second liquid block 30 to the south bridge chip 11 in order to absorb heat produced by the south bridge chip 11 and dissipate heat. Some of the heat is also rapidly transferred to the second liquid block 30 and absorbed by the coolant in the second liquid block 30. In this embodiment, the heat-dissipating plate 40 is formed with multiple heat-dissipating fins 41. Therefore, the heat absorbed by the heat-dissipating plate 40 is not only absorbed by the coolant inside the second liquid block 30, but is also dissipated by the heat-dissipating fins 41. This achieves a double-cooling effect.

The pump 50 is connected with one of the inlet/outlet 221 on the first liquid block 20 via tubing 51 so as to have liquid communications with the first liquid block 20.

The heat sink 60 is connected via two tubing 61 with the pump 50 and one of the inlet/outlet 321 on the second liquid block 30, respectively. The pump 50 operates to make the coolant circulate among the first liquid block 20, the second liquid block 30, the pump 50 and the heat sink 60. When the coolant absorbed with heat flows to the heat sink 60, the heat is dissipated into the environment by the heat sink 60.

The invention uses a heat-dissipating plate in combination with two liquid blocks 20,30 to absorb heat produced by three heat-generating electronic components. The heat-dissipating fins 41 on the heat-dissipating plate 40 can further enhance the heat-dissipating effect. In comparison with the conventional liquid cooling device, the invention has one less liquid block and thus a lower production cost. Moreover, the invention simplifies the connections among various electronic components.

Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and features of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed. 

1. A liquid cooling device for multiple electronic components, the liquid cooling device comprising: two liquid blocks communicating with each other via tubing and being filled with coolant, each of the liquid blocks for being mounted on an electronic component; a heat-dissipating plate integrally extending from and being outside one of the liquid blocks for being mounted on another electronic component; a pump being connected and communicating with one of the liquid blocks via tubing; and a heat sink being connected and communicating with the pump and one of the liquid blocks via tubing.
 2. The liquid cooling device as claimed in claim 1, wherein each liquid block comprises: a base having a bottom surface in contact with the electronic component; and a cover being mounted on the base and formed with an inlet and an outlet.
 3. The liquid cooling device as claimed in claim 2, wherein each liquid block further comprises multiple heat-dissipating fins being formed on a top surface of the base inside the cover.
 4. The liquid cooling device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the heat-dissipating plate is formed with multiple heat-dissipating fins outside the cover.
 5. The liquid cooling device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the heat-dissipating plate is formed with multiple heat-dissipating fins outside the cover.
 6. The liquid cooling device as claimed in claim 3, wherein the heat-dissipating plate is formed with multiple heat-dissipating fins outside the cover.
 7. The liquid cooling device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the heat-dissipating plate integrally extends from the base of a corresponding one of the liquid blocks.
 8. The liquid cooling device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the heat-dissipating plate integrally extends from the base of a corresponding one of the liquid blocks. 